by
PridePatriot
Part 2
It had been a while since she'd stopped trying to contact me. I was still pretty distraught and didn't even want to think about getting back into the dating game again. Nonetheless, I had to find something to do to divert my mind from all of the sexual energy and frustration I had building up. Please know that I'm not implying that our relationship was based on sex. I'm just saying that going from getting some an average of, lets say, 5 times a week for seven years (yes, that's including the year she was away in Iraq and the times we weren't in the mood because we were arguing, on our cycles, too tired or whatever, so you do the math) to nothing at all is a change anybody would feel. I'm sure she was feenin too! So anyway, I started going to the park regularly to play ball. I was a strong guard back in the day, but a bad knee and work made me have to put aside any ideas of serious competition.So there I was in the middle of my new 2 hour a day, 2-3 times a week trash talking street ball ritual, taking a water break when I noticed a silver Mustang Cobra across the parking lot. I hadn't seen it pull up but I knew this wasn't just any Mustang. It was Alisha's. After she returned from Iraq I'd helped her pick it out, negotiated the price and even made a few payments for her. I'd also done the maintenance and upkeep on it for her, so I knew it like the back of my hand and could pick it out from a mile away in a line of cars just like it. I looked around but I didn't see Alisha and went back to my game before the urge to look harder got too strong.When my knee started bothering me I decided I had enough for the day and wiped off with my towel before sliding my leather pants and custom motorcycle jacket (a gift from Alisha) on over my basketball clothes. I stuffed my basketball shoes into my backpack, flung it over my shoulder, tied on my do-rag, grabbed my helmet and headed for my pride and joy. I picked up my Kawasaki Ninja 500R to spite Alisha after we had gotten into our first big argument over finances. Yea, I know. But in my own defense I gotta say I'm not the only one who took it to extremes when we got into big disagreements. We made up of course, and she eventually accepted the bike, which was good because it became like a child to me. Alisha's car was still in the parking lot about 8 spaces from my motorcycle, but I wasn't about to lead myself into temptation, so I made a conscious effort not to look in the direction of her car as I approached my bike.Unfortunately my plan didn't work because when I was about 10 feet away I heard a slight stall then her engine start up and before I could react she zipped into the parking space next to my bike. "Wassup? You don't even know me anymore?" she said rolling her neck as only a black woman can."Naw girl. You know its nothing like that." I said solemnly as I approached the driver's side of her car. "I just....""Yea, I know. Don't worry about it" she cut in before I could finish."How long has your car been stalling like that?""What are you talking about? Its been running fine."I just gave her a look of disapproval, sighed and then abruptly reached through her car window to pull the lever to pop the hood. I didn't mean to touch her. I really didn't, but it happened. The back of my hand grazed her smooth, sexy calf. Just that small physical contact with her aroused me like a jolt of electricity shooting through my arm and spreading through the rest of my body. It took absolutely everything in me not to give her a quick fondle as I withdrew my arm from her car. I wanted to grab a thigh, a titty...something! But I managed to maintain control. I noticed from the looks of her fresh perm and nail job that she must have been pampering herself as she had tendency to do when she was stressed. But I had to stay strong against the temptation to continue admiring her beauty, so I simply walked around to the front of her car, lifted the hood and started checking he fluid levels. Just as I suspected her oil was low and needed to be changed."Alisha, when was the last time you had your oil changed?" I asked as I dropped the hood back down."I don't know. I used to have this mechanic chick handle all that stuff for me in exchange for sexual favors," she replied smirking and handing me tissues from her glove compartment to wipe my hands with as I approached her door again."Hey," I said, ignoring her comment and crouching down and resting my arms across her door. "The mileage stickers we put up there that indicate the time for your next oil change aren't just suggestions. It looks like you're leaking some oil too. Bring the car by the shop tomorrow and I'll make sure Tony gives you a whole tune-up before your lunch break is over.""Tony? Why not you?""I'm working the counter for a while... kind of a long story," I said avoiding eye contact."Something related to your hot ass temper no doubt, but I guess that aint any of my business anymore so I'll leave it alone."Alisha could have a smart mouth when she wanted to and that coupled with knowing me so well sometime made for a bad combination."The guys have been asking about you." she said, changing the subject."Oh, fo'real? What'd you end up telling them anyway?""I told them we were still tight, but we just no longer saw eye to eye on our living arrangement so you decided to bounce." She had a slight waiver in her voice when she said this and even though she was wearing sunglasses she looked away like she didn't want me to see her tear up. I wanted so badly to put an arm around her shoulder and tell her again that I was sorry, but something caught my eye that changed my train of thought."What the fuck is that on your neck!!?" I shouted, gesturing to a spot of discoloration I had just noticed that looked suspiciously like a hickey. But the moment the words left my lips I wished they hadn't, remembering it was my decision to call it quits and also that we had been separated for some time now. If it really was a hickey I was surely better off not hearing anything more about it."Look, you're the one who ended it. Not me. So you can't even play that jealousy stuff and be yellin at me like that. First of all, I'm mad you would even jump to the conclusion you're at right now," she said waiving her pinky in my face. "Part of my soul died when you walked out that door and I realized you weren't coming back. And you have the audacity to imply I would just forget and start messin with somebody else that easily? Please don't forget how I roll, baby girl! Second, it's a burn, ok? We went to the range last week and one of the hot empty shells from the person shooting in the lane next to mine flew out and hit me in the neck." That alone was enough to make me feel like an asshole, but she kept going."I'm not afraid to tell you that I'm still hurting. I miss you and I still want to be with you, Tracy. You were always better at covering up your feelings but whether its an act or not it still hurts to see that being apart seems so easy for you."She was really cutting through my heart with the guilt trip, but I still had to be strong because I knew there was just no way I could live the way she was expecting me to. So I did the only thing I could think of to try to push her away. I reached into my backpack, pulled out a Black n Mild and lit it up right there in front of her knowing she hated it when people smoked around her. It was selfish of me to play her emotions like that, but I would choose having her angry at me over facing the reality that I was hurting her any day of the week."Whateva, Tracy. You don't need to make things worse by smoking in my face. I was about to leave anyway. I came cuz the guys were asking about you and wanted to invite you to a get together at that sports bar outside the base to watch the game. I know you're no longer under any obligation to help support this straight front I'm carrying, but I was hoping you'd help me this once at least for the sake of our friendship. If you come I'll be grateful and if you don't I wont ask again. Bye!" Then she started up her car and drove away.I spent the next couple of days thinking about whether or not I was going to meet up with Alisha and her marine crew to watch the game. I just didn't see a friendship with her working. It was too painful to be around her, but on the other hand I still felt like I would do anything for her. I went back and forth and when Friday came around I decided to make an appearance.I slipped into the bar wearing black jeans and a white Rocca Wear hoodie with black lettering. The guys were well into their 6th or 7th pitcher of beer and Alisha was sipping on a bottle of Smirnoff Ice. Knowing her, it was probably her first and only one for the evening. She was never a big drinker in public. She always liked to be in control enough to get herself home if she needed to. I had already decided on a game plan to cut myself off around halftime so that I wouldn't have to worry about finding a ride home myself. Especially, not with Alisha. Being alone in a car with her knowing we could be nothing more than friends was torture I did not want to subject myself to. The game started and I began to feel more and more at ease when I realized I was actually having a good time. I had a couple drinks, listened to a few stories the guys were telling, and Alisha even came and sat at the table I was watching the game from for a while. We talked about small stuff like work and new movies that had come out. It might have been the alcohol or it might have been because there were other people around but for some reason it didn't feel as awkward as the day we spoke at the park.By the third quarter, the bar had pretty much been taken over by Alisha and her fellow Marines with only a couple outsiders occupying seats at the far end of the bar. Most had lost interest in the game which wasn't even close anymore so there was a low rumble and several side conversations going on when it cut to a commercial during a timeout close to the end of the quarter. During the commercial Alisha stood up at the bar and announced she had something to say. Thinking she was just going to talk trash about how well the Spurs were doing, being from Texas and all, a couple of the guys groaned and one told her to sit down giving her a hard time."No, no guys! Even though yes, I'm glad you noticed that my Spurs are stompin the hell outta Charlotte tonight, that's not what I need to say something about." she said smiling and raising her glass of Sprite toward one of the bars large screen TVs. "Tracy," she said, looking towards me and setting her glass down before continuing. "For almost eight years now you've been my supporter, my confidant, my teacher, my mechanic, my protector, my best friend and...my lover." I was shocked myself, so I couldn't even imagine what everybody else was thinking at that point. All I knew was that all eyes were on her and if not for the TV you could have heard a pin drop in that bar. I could see tears starting to form in her eyes as she made her way towards me and kneeled down in front of me at the table I was sitting at. She took one of my hands, and holding a diamond incrusted wedding band in front of me she said, "And I don't care who knows anymore, all that you are and all that you mean to me, as long as you come back home."Before she slipped the ring onto my finger she showed me the inscription on the inside which below the date we met read, 'Ride or die. Sempre Fi. Love Alisha.' Now, I always hated crying in front of people, especially Alisha. Since I'd known her, she had only seen me tear up three times. Once, when I threw my knee out playing ball, a second time when saying goodbye just before she left for Iraq and a third when she came home from Iraq. But it became four times because I couldn't hold back getting misty eyed that night in the bar. I held her face in my hands and wiped the tears from her cheeks with my thumbs. Then I helped her up off her knees to sit in my lap. Derick Thomas and a couple of the other guys walked out of the bar grumbling about ruining their buzz or something like that as we sat there with our foreheads touching. I whispered to her that I loved her, and then remembered I had something as well. I reached into the neck of my hoodie and pulled out the chain I was wearing around my neck. It had Alisha's ring on it. Not being able to completely let go, I had been wearing it around my neck since the morning I moved out on her. I unclasped it and let the ring fall into the palm of my hand. Then I placed it where it belonged. On her finger.By then I guess the initial shock had worn off and there was a wide spectrum of reactions. Obviously there were those few guys who walked out, but Alisha and I hardly noticed them. One of the guys came up to congratulate us, which I thought took a lot of courage on his part. A couple others swore up and down that they knew all along and still there were some who seemed indifferent altogether. The rest of the game is pretty fuzzy to me. I just remember being eager to get home and have some one-on-one time with Alisha. But we stayed and chilled a little after the end of the game until the group started to thin out as people headed home. As we left the bar I was on cloud nine walking Alisha to her car whispering sweet nothings into her ear along with a few other more graphic descriptions of things I wanted to do to her when we got home. As we approached her driver's side door I stopped in mid sentence. Alisha didn't realize why until I kneeled down and rubbed my fingers across the exterior of her door. Somebody had keyed the words "Dyke Whore" into the side of her car. We both froze, momentarily speechless to what we were looking at. Then I broke the silence looking up at her and saying in a pretty disgusted tone, "These are the people you're supposed to trust with your life? That's real fukkin reassuring." Then I stood up and circled her car looking for any other markings or signs that her gas tank or exhaust pipe had been tampered with. Sometimes there's no telling how far people will go."Tracy love, remember its just material things. You can fix some paint on a door." she said when I had reached the opposite side of the car, knowing I was about to hit a boiling point."Yea, but I know better detailers. I'll prolly just call in a favor and have one of them do it. It's just a hassle and I hate seeing that people can be so heartless," I replied. Then I got wide eyed and darted off remembering my bike.When I got there and saw that my front tire had been slashed I lost it and started pacing like a madwoman, shouting explicative and looking for something to throw. Alisha came running up to calm me down before I made an even bigger fool of myself, but she knew I was livid. Some of the other guys in the bar came over to see what the commotion was about, and apologized to both of us for the actions of whoever did the damage. Even though it seemed pretty futile, they promised to punish whoever was responsible if they could ever identify who it was. We all knew it was unlikely that we'd be able to prove anything. But Alisha kind of surprised me by staying calm and assuring me that that kind of closed mindedness wasn't carried by the majority of the Marines she worked with. I started to see that from the guys who came to see what was wrong, but I was still angry, so I just stayed silent and called the shop to have a tow truck pick up my bike. We stayed until the tow truck arrived then Alisha handed me her keys so we could head home. We sat in silence during the 15 minute drive home. Alisha could tell I was still pretty upset from the way I was scowling and slamming the stick as I shifted gears. She knew I wanted to be mad, but she wasn't having any of it that night. She just stared at me and then started rubbing on my neck and leg as I drove. I was fighting to hold onto my anger, but she knew she had won when my scowl had completely disappeared by the time we arrived at the house. Shortly after entering the house we embraced and shared our first kiss since reuniting. It was a sweet moment but then my lust for her that had always been there but had only been accumulating since I left took over my actions. We had a spontaneous, "make me feel good" fuck, like Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry in Monster's Ball. We were all over the living room couch, table and floor. But later after we both recovered, we retired upstairs to the bedroom for some "Slow Motion" Juvenile style, love making.Now, we're approaching our 10 year anniversary. Alisha is still a marine, a gunnery sergeant now, and I'm still loving the auto mechanic business. Together we've run the gauntlet of attitudes towards our lifestyle, getting through it by reminding each other to always remain faithful to each other and ourselves.
